But the directory changed such that my docsFromUpload is now outside (one level higher) of my deployed war file, may I know how I can still access filename.doc? Using the code above, I can't seem to reach filename.doc in this directory:

Yes, I have permission to touch other folders outside the deployed app. I was wondering, what do you mean by somePath/../stuff, this is how I "save" to the said folder one level up, but I don't know how to view these files from my system given that when I use GWT.getHostPageBaseURL(), what I get is http://localhost:8080/_____.file, if I use this, the system can't find the files specified, does this mean that i have to put an absolute path instead? because I'm trying to avoid this.